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At least three people have lost their lives as extreme weather, including flash floods, hail storms and lightning storms wreaked havoc in southern Germany on Sunday evening.

The states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria were struggling to cope with the results of destructive storms on Monday morning.

In Schwäbisch Gmünd in Baden-Württemberg a firefighter died on Sunday while trying to dig a stranded person out of trouble. The person he was trying to save is also likely dead, authorities said on Sunday evening.

In Heilbronn, meanwhile, police also confirmed that one person died after being trapped in an underground garage during flooding.

“We are using all the resources we have,” a police spokesperson in the town said of the flooding. “It's not looking good here, it's looking really bad.”

Videos uploaded to the internet show torrential rain and powerful flash floods dragging everything that wasn't fixed to the ground with them.

In Ansbach whole streets were flooded and powerful water flows ripped cars along with them. Some houses north of the town were so badly damaged that they could now collapse. Emergency services are now working to prop up the structures.